Cognitive Science Research at Cognitive Development Lab
Saturday, May 15th, 2010
The cognitive lab at UC Merced investigates social reasoning in children and adults. How do we acquire attitudes and social norms, for example? And how do we change acquired social knowledge? There are several research projects on a variety of social topics, as illustrated in the examples below, going on at the lab.
Usually, we affiliate with groups, such as family and friends, for the rich experiences that these groups provide. One research investigates whether people will still prefer groups when no such rich experiences are available. Work at the lab confirms that children do affiliate with even randomly created, unfamiliar groups that they have been put into.
Another research project concerns the role of language. Language is usually seen simply as a vehicle to communicate ideas. According to one view, language does more; it shapes the nature of our thinking. Cultural concepts provide building blocks for our ideas. Research at the lab with bilingual speakers suggest that people respond differently depending on the language they are addressed in.
Adults have attitudes and stereotypes about different social groups. Do children also view social groups in the same way? Research suggests that they do; implicit social attitudes appear early and remain stable during a lifetime.
Visit the Cognitive Lab website for a look at the work the lab does.
Tags: attitudes, cognitive science, group affiliation, language, social knowledge, stereotypes
Posted in cognitive science, culture, language, learning | 2 Comments »
Children Exposed to Two Languages do not Suffer Language Contamination
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010
There is a common belief that if children are exposed to more than one language during early childhood, their language skills will suffer. They might have difficulty in recalling words needed in a particular language conversation, for example. A kind of language contamination is believed to occur affecting mastery of any language.
Researchers at Dartmouth College, USA, studied childen who were exposed to different combinations of languages from early childhood. They found that the children “grow as if there were two mono-linguals housed in one brain.” This apparently means that the cbildren master both languages as if these were their primary languages.
The researchers looked at 15 bilingual children exposed to two languages from varying ages. There were four groups depending on when intensive exposure to the second language began: at birth, between the ages of two to three, four to six years, and seven to nine years. The children spoke various combinations of languages, including Spanish and French, French and English, Russian and French and sign language and French.
ABC Science Online
Tags: bilingual children, brain development, cognitive development
Posted in cognitive development, language, learning | No Comments »
Neurolinguistics: A High-Sounding Word for What We Do Every Day
Friday, March 5th, 2010
Neuroliguistics studies language development in humans, and language use is something the we do every day. The human brain can respond differently to the slight changes in a speaker’s tone of voice or emphasis. A boring lecture creates a very different scenario in the brain from one created by an absorbingly presented class.
Then there is the issue of language acquisition. Noam Chomsky and others have argued that humans are born with grammar built-in. Children learn to understand speech very early, though they might have difficulty understanding long-winded sentences (something that even adults experience!)
A research lab at Carleton University, Canada is setting up a new lab for language and brain research. Participants will wear skullcaps fixed to their heads with gel. Electrodes in the skullcap connect their scalp to brainwave-reading machines. Researchers observe the brain responses to different bits of language delivered in different ways to the audience.
Researchers hope to learn which areas of the brain are activated (which neurons fire) when we speak, hear and understand. There are other facilities that measure different things, all concerned with language use.
Read the story at the Carleton Magazine.
Tags: cognitive science, language use, neurolinguistics
Posted in cognitive science, language | No Comments »
